When You Sleep
by mecaka
Summary: Inspired by a Tumblr fan-art comic. Credit to ninjaelsanna for the art, elsannaheadcanons for the idea. One night, soon after the accident, Anna falls asleep against Elsa's door. It doesn't happen again until the night after the funeral. Not explicitly Elsanna.


**Okay, I really hope no one else has done this, but I had to do it. I couldn't resist. The inspiration was posted on a frozen-tumblr blog (ninjaelsanna . tumblr post/73275260525/faithstar23-ninjaelsanna-inspired-by-this), and it was beautifully adorable. And sad. But we'll get to that later.**

**Also, if you want to read this as Elsanna, feel free. I realized about halfway through that it could be interpreted that way. I did not intend for that, though. I've got nothing against the people who write and read Elsanna, but it's not for me. :/ (Also, the artist probably _meant_ for the drawing to be interpreted as Elsanna... I mean, that's like her job. To make adorable Elsanna comics.)**

****Follow me on Twitter ( _mecaka) for notices on when I'll update, what I'm working on and where the heck I've been. Follow me on tumblr (mecaka . tumblr . com) to see previews of upcoming chapters, stories, and one-shots (and any fan-related thing that I might make... And possibly more in-depth explanations of where I've been)****

It was one of the first nights since Elsa had moved out of the room they had shared. She felt awful about it. She hadn't been able to sleep the first two because she couldn't hear Anna's steady breathing. She hadn't been able to leave because she didn't want to see Anna's heartbroken face when she turned down requests to play.

She _couldn't _hurt Anna again, but ignoring her cold turkey was _killing_ Elsa. She could only imagine what Anna must be thinking; she couldn't even remember the accident, so she wouldn't know why Elsa didn't want to be around her anymore. Elsa did want to play with Anna, she just _couldn't_.

She was laying on her bed, hoping she'd pass out from exhaustion soon. She hadn't even tried sleeping in the past 36 hours or so, and the lack of sleep was taking its toll on her eight-year-old body. Anna had been outside all afternoon, talking, reading, trying desperately to get a response. She must have given up at some point, because Elsa hadn't heard a peep from the other side of the door in a while.

She sighed, realizing that she should probably eat and go to the bathroom while she had the opportunity to leave unnoticed. She cracked open the door, and almost squealed in fright at the sight of a sleeping Anna collapsed on the floor in front of Elsa's door. A bolt of ice shot out behind her.

_Oh, Anna..._

Elsa almost left her there, to go find a servant to carry her back to her room, but something stopped her. She glanced down at her sister, feeling the fear leave her for the first time since the accident. If she was careful, she could spend a little time with Anna, even if Anna wasn't aware of it.

Elsa bent over, scooped up the five-year-old as best she could, and half-carried, half-dragged her baby sister back to their old room. _Anna's room, not yours_.

She had a little trouble getting Anna up into the bed, but she managed. She pulled the covers up to the younger girl's shoulders, leaned in, and placed a light, fleeting kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight, Anna," she whispered. _Sweet dreams._

* * *

_Anna wakes the next morning to sunlight streaming through the windows. She sits up, rubbing her eyes momentarily, wondering how she ended up in her bed. She briefly remembers a dream where a cold wind with Elsa's voice bid her good night. "Elsa?" she asks the obviously empty room._

_She gets up and starts off for her sister's new room. She doesn't know why Elsa didn't want to share a room anymore, but she doesn't really care. At least she still has her sister. Sort of._

_She knocks the special knock they used to use to tell each other when it was **them**, not a servant, at the door. She waits a moment before calling Elsa's name, the second time that morning. There is no response from the other side of the door. "Elsa, come on! Open up!"_

_Silence._

_"Elsa, I wanted to talk to you for a little bit!"_

_Silence._

_"Did you bring me back to my room last night?"_

_A small noise, almost like a sigh, almost like a hushed sob, escapes to Anna's side of the door. She tugs on the handle a little, but stops when she realizes that it's still locked._

_"Y'know, you can't stay in there **forever**, right? I mean, you have to eat and go to the bathroom, and Momma's gonna want you to start coming to dinner again soon."_

_More silence._

_Anna sits down on her side of the door, and continues talking. Most of what she says has nothing to do with getting Elsa to come out, only to keep herself entertained until a maid comes and forces her to get dressed and comb her hair and eat breakfast._

_She comes back after lunch, and again after dinner. The door stays closed._

* * *

Elsa felt less lonely when Anna planted herself on the other side of the door. She knew that at least _someone_ cared, because they were right there waiting for her to come back out and say hello.

Anna talked about anything and everything. Old Elsa would have been driven crazy by the incessant chatter, but new Elsa cherished it, knowing that Anna will give up eventually. She needed to savor the one-sided moments now, before she lost them.

Before she took them for granted.

Part of her hoped that Anna would fall asleep outside her door again. She'd get another moment with Anna again tonight, if she did. She knew it was selfish, keeping her distance, but wanting Anna to stay. Wanting the time Anna gave, even if she didn't give it back.

But she can't live locked away in a room, alone, forever. She _needed_ this, no matter how selfish it might be.

She was leaning against the door, listening to Anna's somewhat disjointed, nonsensical mumblings, taking solace from the long day in the quiet sounds of her baby sister. As she listened, Anna was getting quieter, the pauses lengthening and growing in number. She was almost asleep, so it was almost time for Elsa to take her back to her room. _Just a few minutes longer!_

Suddenly, there was another voice in the hallway. The maid woke Anna up, and told her she needed to go to bed. There was some shuffling, and then quiet. Moments later, Elsa poked her head out of the door, watching Anna's retreating sleepy form. There was a blanket over her shoulders, and she was rubbing one of her eyes. Elsa's eyes filled with tears, knowing she wasn't getting to carry her baby sister tonight.

* * *

_Anna keeps trying to get through to Elsa. She doesn't want to lose her best friend for good, but Elsa isn't opening up._

_So, Anna stays outside the door, determined to fall asleep there, or to catch Elsa leaving for food or water or the bathroom._

_She refuses to give in, even when—night after night—servants from all over the castle come and tell her to go to bed. She has to obey, because she's only five. But that doesn't keep her from trying._

* * *

Elsa was fourteen now. Her powers kept getting stronger, and Anna didn't spend all of her time on the floor outside Elsa's room anymore.

Elsa was hurting. She couldn't really trust herself around anyone. She spent all of her time alone, except for when her parents came to talk to her. And when they did, she was panicking so much the whole time they were there that she scared them into thinking she had less control than she did.

She hated the disappointed looks they always gave her.

She missed Anna. _So much_.

* * *

_Anna is eleven now. She never did get through to Elsa. And what was she supposed to do, spend her whole childhood camping out in front of Elsa's door? No. She isn't a little kid anymore; she doesn't need to depend on a sister who doesn't want to be around her to the point that she locks herself in her room._

_Sometimes, she dreams about that night when she was five. She can feel the cold against her face. She hadn't realized it then, but she's pretty sure the wind in her dream carried her to bed; she could feel it holding her upright._

_She's not sure why she associated that wind in her dream with Elsa. Probably because all her happiest memories were of paying with Elsa in the snow._

* * *

She had just been told her parents were dead. She was only eighteen, and now she was technically the Queen of Arendelle. She wouldn't be officially crowned for another three years or so, until she came of age, but she was the _queen_.

She was lying on her bed, staring at the canopy. When the butler had come to inform her, she had slammed the door in his face so that he wouldn't see her powers explode out of her. A storm had raged in her bedroom as she cried over her parents deaths. Her room was frozen, and she couldn't get the doors to open. The canopy on her bed had been shredded.

They were having a funeral service in two days, and she knew everyone would expect her to go.

It was her fault. They had been going to look for a way to help her. Well, part of the reason. A cousin or a close friend or _someone_ was getting married, which was the official reason for the trip. But they had told her they were going to look for something they had heard would help, while they were gone.

She had asked them to stay, to not take the risk for her. It was _her_ curse, not theirs. She would deal with the consequences. They hadn't listened.

And now they were gone.

She felt really drained, and knew she was, if the stilled storm was anything to go buy. Snowflakes hung in the air, unmoving. It was weird, but perfectly reflected how she felt. She sighed, and felt more tears form in her eyes.

* * *

_Anna stands between her parents monumental headstones, head bowed, silently mourning their absence. She can feel the empty space to her right as if it were a huge, tangible presence. Elsa should be here, but she isn't. She couldn't be bothered to leave her room._

_Anna knows it's probably because of the grief. Elsa doesn't want to face the world while in mourning. So Anna has decided to be strong for her, even though she's the younger and should be looking to Elsa now._

_After the short service, after accepting the condolences of the hundreds who attended, she goes back inside. She wanders the halls, feeling aimless, until she finds herself at Elsa's door. She takes a breath, and knocks for the first time in more than a year. "Elsa? Please... I know you're in there. I mean, where else would you be? Everyone was asking where you were, why they haven't seen you in so long... Look, I know this is awful, but I'm trying to be strong... For both of us. I'm right out here for you, Elsa, you just have to give me a chance._ _**Please** open the door, Elsa."_**  
**

_She turns from the door, knowing that it won't be opening. She leans back against it, sliding down. "It's just you and me now, Elsa. You can't shut me out forever. We **need** each other, because we only **have** each other."_

_She takes a breath, the pain hitting her again. "What are we going to do?"_

_As tears fill her eyes, she asks a final question, her voice breaking from her grief: "Do you want to build a snowman?" She knows not to expect an answer._

_If their parents **dying** wasn't enough to get Elsa t come out of her shell, Anna knows a childish question won't be enough. After all, it never was._

* * *

Elsa came to the door when Anna knocked, not expecting it to be Anna. She could't bring herself to respond, so she just sat with her back to the door, listening to the heartbreaking sound of her sister's tear-filled voice.

When Anna got to _the_ question, Elsa sobbed, dropping her head to her knees, drawing her feet further in. Her room was still frozen, snowflakes still hung in the air. She had begun her grief in that very spot, and the ice spread outward from where she sat.

She stayed like that for a long time, alternating between listening to Anna crying and crying herself. At some point, she realized that all she could hear from the hall was quiet, even breathing. Anna had fallen asleep on the floor outside her door again. The first time since the night Elsa had carried her back to her room.

She made a decision in that moment. She cracked the door open, peeked out around the corner of the door, and reached her hand out, wanting to touch Anna.

Her hand had almost reached her sister, but she jerked back at the last second. She couldn't risk hurting Anna again! Her magic was completely out of her control right now. _She couldn't risk it, not now, not ever_.

She stifled a sob, dragging the hand to her mouth. Then, she reached out again, latching onto the blanket Anna was curled up in. _Never again_...

* * *

_Anna wakes to sunlight streaming through the windows. She blinks groggily, wondering why her back is aching. She sits up, and realizes she's on the floor in the hallway. She glances at Elsa's cracked-open door, looks away sighing, gets up, and turns to go to her room._

_She takes three steps before she realizes that Elsa's door is **open**. She spins around, noticing a blanket halfway through the barely open door. She walks slowly towards it, half-expecting the door to be slammed in her face. _Please, if there is a God, **please **have her let me in...

_She sets her hand on the handle, gently nudging the door open another inch. She hears a slight rustle, and freezes, then peeks in._

_From what she can see in the gloom cast by drawn curtains, the room is stark, the furniture old. There's a thin layer of what looks like dust on everything, huge motes hanging in the air. _How can she **live** like this?

_Anna goes to push the door open farther, still unsure of why it is open at all, when suddenly, there's another rustle, a yelp, a flash, and a bang as the door is forced shut. She hears Elsa breathing heavily on the other side. "Elsa? Elsa, you can't live like this! You don't let anyone in, and look what it's done! You're room is a mess. How can you not be sick? All of that dust..."_

_"Go away, Anna! Just leave me alone!" Anna's eyes fill with tears at the sound of her sister's broken voice. She can't do anything about it, though._

_Elsa has shut her out once more._

**Just so you know, this is the longest chapter I have ever written. More than 2000 words (not counting the author's notes!) REVIEW please! I'd love to hear from you! (I respond to all signed reviews as soon as I see them)**

_**I will try to update Concealed and my other stories in the next couple of weeks.**_


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